Nutrition Knowledge and Dietary Pattern of Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinics in Ondo East Local Government a R E a O F O N D O S Tat E

The study was carried out to examine nutrition knowledge and dietary pattern of pregnantwomen attending antenatal clinics in Ondo East Local Government Area of Ondo State Fourresearch questions and one hypothesis were raised to guide the study. The study employedsurvey research design. The population for this study comprised of all pregnant womenattending antenatal clinics in Ondo East Local Government Area of Ondo State. Ballotingtechnique was used to select the General hospital and five (5) primary health centres out of theavailable twenty one in the local government area. Purposive sampling technique was used toselect thirty-two (32) respondents from pregnant women present al the health facility onantenatal clinic day. A total of one hundred and ninety-two (192) respondents was therefore thesample for the study. Self-developed structured questionnaire was used for data collection.Data were analysed using frequency percentage, mean scores, standard deviation and chi-square. The major findings revealed that 72.4% of the pregnant women had moderateknowledge and 27.6% had adequate knowledge regarding nutrition during the antenatalperiod. 21.8% of the respondents have good dietary patterns, 68.2% had average dietarypatterns and 9.9% had a poor dietary pattern. There is no significant difference in the nutritionknowledge and dietary pattern of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Ondo EastLocal Government Area. The calculated chi-square values were less than the table value at the0.05 level of significance. Based on the findings, it was recommended that: promotion of dietarydiversity and antenatal care attendance among pregnant women in the Local Government Areaby the local health authority, Governmental Organisations (NGO) will go a long way toimprove maternal health and birth outcome. Also, pregnant women supplementation withmicronutrients (Vitamin A, Iron and Zinc) will reduce the risk of maternal micronutrientdeficiency during pregnancy